USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
A proposition was made in the month following by Abraham Tappen and A. Sessions (one account says Amos, one Anson, and one Aaron) to survey this land, and lay it off into townships. The same was accepted, and work commenced and pushed forward with vigor. Five hundred thousand acres were to be measured off on the western end of the Reserve for the Fire Lands Com- pany, and the balance to the Cuyahoga came under the contract made by Tappen and Sessions. They met at Cleveland on May 15th, 1806, with their men, chain-car- riers, and pack-horses, and soon entered upon the work, which was successfully pushed to completion.
It will be seen from these increasing references to Cleveland that the settlement upon the Cuyahoga was be- coming a place large enough to be recognized by the world at large. Some events of local importance were placed upon its record in this year, 1805. In May occurred the usual military election, when Nathaniel Doan was chosen captain ; Samuel Jones " leuftenant ;" and Sylvanus Burk, ensign. A son of Major Carter, eleven years of age, was drowned at the mouth of the river; Samuel Dodge, who had wedded a daughter of Timothy Doan, built himself a log-cabin on the Euclid road, and dug what is said to have been the first well in Cleveland- walled up with stones which the Indians had brought into the neighborhood to use as backs to their wigwam fire- places; at the fall election, twenty-nine votes were cast for State Representative, of which all but two were for James Kingsbury-and the poll-book was rejected be- cause the certificate to the oaths of the clerks and judges was not attached, nor were the signatures of the judges of election. We also find the first mention of the ap- pointment of jurymen. At a meeting of the township trustees in March, Augustus Gilbert and Eliphas Norton
127
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
were named as grand jurymen; and David Dilly, David Clark and Samuel Dodge to serve as " trabes juries," as the record-book expresses it. The youthful John Doan was sent from " the Corners " to school over in New- burg, and afterward confessed plaintively that "the wolves howled around the house where I boarded, and I became very homesick. I believe that a daughter of 'Squire Spafford was our teacher. There were some twenty-five children attended, and there were not enough books in the whole community to give each of us an outfit. Afterwards a school was started below us, but I never had much chance in it. It held only three months in the winter and three in the summer, but the boys were kept so busy hoeing corn and picking up brush that they did not get much of a chance at the summer term." On the 16th of June occurred a total eclipse of the sun, which the Indians of the neighborhood construed into an expres- sion of displeasure on the part of the Great Spirit, with their having sold to the white men the homes and lands of their fathers. The death of David Clark is noted; and it was during this year that the schooner " Washington," which was one of the first clearances from the port of the Cuyahoga, sailed into the lake with crew and cargo, and was never heard of again. Judge Kingsbury put up the frame of a house, and not obtaining the lumber from the mills at Newburg, erected a mill of his own, and in the year following completed the structure, making, also, the brick for his own chimney.92
In October, the village became the possessor of a post- office of its own, and Elisha Norton was appointed post- master. As early as 1801 the mail was brought to War-
92 " His son still possesses the last brick made, marked with the date, June 22, 1807. The house was a large, two-story frame, and is still stand- ing in good repair, occupied by a son, James Kingsbury, then unborn, but now an aged man. It is probably the oldest building standing within the limits of the city. Part of the upper story was finished off in a large room, in which dances were held, and also Masonic communications, the Judge being a zealous member of the mystic order."-"History of Cuyahoga County," compiled by Crisfield Johnson, 1879, p. 213.
128
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ren, the seat of Trumbull County, once in two weeks, by way of Pittsburg, Canfield and Youngstown, and that was the terminus of the mail route for a couple of years, before it came on to Cleveland. The route from Warren was by way of Deerfield, Ravenna and Hudson, and from Cleveland to Detroit along the old Indian trail to San- dusky, Toledo, and so on to Detroit; from Cleveland it went back to Warren via Painesville and Jefferson. A collection district for the south shore of the lake was also established this year, called the " District of Erie," and John Walworth, of Painesville, was appointed collector.
Postmaster Norton soon relinquished the cares of office and removed to Portage County, and Mr. Walworth be- came his successor.93 This useful man and prominent pioneer was born in Connecticut, in 1765, and in 1800 came to Ohio, and purchased a farm, at the mouth of Grand River, four miles north of Painesville. Being of education, sound judgment and good address, he soon found himself one of the leading spirits of the community. He held several offices, and upon his appointment as col- lector, decided to remove to Cleveland. He disposed of his interests on the Grand River, and soon after made a purchase of a farm of three hundred acres, between Huron, Erie and Cross streets, of the later day, and the Cuyahoga River. He brought his family here in 1806, and made the city his home for the remainder of his life, which ended in 1812, in the very darkest days of the war. One of his daughters, afterward the wife of Dr. David Long, and the mother of Mrs. Mary H. Severance, has left a record" of that trip, in which she says: "My father, John Walworth, moved from Cleveland to Paines- ville in April, 1806. We came up in an open boat, which was wrecked, and my father came near being drowned.
93 A list of the subsequent postmasters of Cleveland, with some interest- ing statistics showing the immense volume of business now handled, will be found in a later portion of this work.
94 " A Pioneer Father and Son,"-" Magazine of Western History," Vol. III., p. 662.
129
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
He was so weak when he came out of the water that he could barely crawl on his hands and knees."
His commission of postmaster, signed by Gideon Granger, postmaster-general, was issued on October 22, 1805. In addition to his offices of postmaster and collect- or, President Jefferson also appointed him “ inspector of revenue for the port of Cuyahoga;" and in 1806 Governor Tiffin made him associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Geauga County, to hold for seven years, " if he shall so long behave well." Col. Whittlesey says: " Judge Walworth at first occupied the upper part of a frame building on the north side of Superior street, near Water street. When his family moved from this building to their house on the Walworth farm, Pittsburg street, a small frame office was erected south of Superior street, where the American House now stands. During Judge Walworth's life, this office contained the combined author- ity of the City, the County and the Federal governments. Mr. Kelley states that, in 1810, Mr. Walworth was re- corder, clerk of the Common Pleas and Supreme Court, postmaster, and collector of the Cuyahoga district. The same office accommodated Mr. Kelley, the only attorney in the place, and Dr. Long, the only physician. During the first quarter of 1806 the receipts of the post-office amounted to two dollars and eighty-three cents. His first clearance (as collector) was issued to the schooner ‘ Good Intent,' which was soon after lost on Long Point, together with cargo and crew."
Judge Walworth was public-spirited in many ways, and willingly engaged in any measure that had in view the advancement of the interests of his chosen home. When the scheme was originated, in 1807, for the improvement of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, so as to give bet- ter connection between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, he was one of the leaders therein, and made agent and a member of the board of commissioners that had it in charge. Although he held several offices at once, the amount of business in each was so small that he was not
130
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
compelled to neglect any of them. His report to the gov- ernment for the season running from April to October, 1809, shows that the total value of goods, wares and merchandise exported from this country to Canada was but fifty dollars. On the organization of Cuyahoga County he was made clerk of the court, and also recorder; he was one of the founders of the first Masonic lodge in Northern Ohio, organized in Warren, in 1803, and one of its officers; and also one of the founders of the institution out of which grew the Western Reserve College. As if these labors were not enough, we hear him enumerating still others, in a letter under date of August 27, 1809, where he says: " The revenue and post-office afford a considerable business, and in addition to that I store and sell salt on commission and have the agency of consider- able land, which causes me short journeys frequently."
The appearance of Cleveland proper, as seen by Judge Walworth on his arrival, has not been described, but an- other visitor* in that year has left his impressions: "I first visited Cleveland, that part now called Newburg, in August, 1806, a boy of sixteen and a half years, and spent some ten days in the family of W. W. Williams. · We attended meetings in a log barn at Doan's Corners once or twice, to hear the announcement of a new sect, by one Daniel Parker, who preached what he called Hal- cyonism-since, I believe, it has become extinct. We bathed together under the fall of Mill Creek, gathered cranberries in the marshes westward of the Edwards's place, and danced to the music of Major Samuel Jones' violin at his house, afterward the residence of my old friend, Captain Allen Gaylord. Judge Huntington, after- wards governor, lived then, I believe, at the place after- wards occupied by Dexter or Erastus Miles. Newburg street was opened previously, from the mill north to Doan's Corners, and was then lined with cultivated fields on both sides, nearly the whole distance from Judge
95 Letter from John Harmon, of Ravenna, dated June 11, 1860 .- Whit- tlesey's "Early History of Cleveland," p. 428.
=
SOUTH-WEST SECTION OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE, 1839.
- ---
131
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Kingsbury's to the mill. But much dead timber re- mained on the fields. There were some orchards of apple trees on some of the farms, and Judge Kingsbury's orchard bore a few apples that season, which was probably the first season of bearing. The Judge had a small nursery of apple trees, and there was a larger nursery of smaller trees on Mr. Williams' place."
Among the arrivals in Cleveland this year can be counted the family of Nathan Perry. He was born in Connecticut in 1760, but removed to western New York, where he built several mills and cultivated a large farm. He came to Ohio as early as 1796, but did not bring his family until 1806. He bought one thousand acres of land, in what is now known as Lake County, at fifty cents per , acre. He also became the owner of five acres in Cleve- , land, between Superior and St. Clair and Water and Bank , streets, and also the tract of land near the intersection of Broadway and Perry street, afterward known as the Horace Perry farm. A further investment was made by him at Black River. On the organization of Cuyahoga County, in 1809, he was appointed one of the court judges, and in 1813 his life labors ended.
On the removal of Judge Perry to the west, his son Nathan, then a mere boy, was placed for a time in the camp of the great chief, Red Jacket, where he learned the Indian language, and much else that gave him great in- fluence with the red men in later years. In 1804, he com- menced life on his own responsibility, establishing a trading station at Black River, thirty miles west of Cleve- land. He purchased furs, and other products of the chase, selling to the Indians in exchange such goods as they needed, or, as approaching civilization had taught them to want. In 1808, he decided to make Cleveland his headquarters, and in a short time assumed a leading posi- tion as one of her pioneer merchants. He erected a com- bined store and dwelling, after the manner of the day, on the corner of Superior and Water streets, where the Na- tional Bank building now stands. In a few years a brick
132
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
store and dwelling replaced the old structure, and was long one of the landmarks of early Cleveland. He gave his life to business, and had neither time nor inclination for the duties of public life. In the early days of the vil- lage charter he was made trustee, but returned to private life as soon as possible, and would accept no office there- after. His later years were passed in ease and comfort, and he died on June 24th, 1865, leaving one daughter, the wife of Hon. Henry B. Payne.
A story somewhat illustrative of the characteristics of Lorenzo Carter, hunter, militiaman, tavern-keeper and all-around pioneer, is told % as happening in the year 1806, and as possessing one element that did not enter into all the anecdotes told in early days of the redoubtable Major-that of truth. In the spring, a canoe in which were a white man, his wife and several children and one colored man, was coming down the lake, and was upset. All were drowned except the black man, who held to a tree upon the bank until rescued in a half-frozen condi- tion. He was taken to Carter's, and cared for during the summer, although so used-up from the exposure as to be of little service to anybody. In the fall two Kentuckians rode into Cleveland and claimed the colored man, Ben, as a slave, who had been enticed away. All they asked was an interview, agreeing that he should not be taken away unless he consented to go willingly.
Major Carter expressed his opinion briefly and to the point. He did not care much for colored men, and had even less liking for the institution of slavery.
One thing was certain, however. If Ben did not wish to meet the gentlemen from Kentucky, meet them he. should not.
"Finally," says Mr. Walworth, "it was agreed that the owner and Ben should see each other, near enough to converse. Ben was to stand on the west side of the river, the owner to be on the east side, near the end of Huron
96 " Lorenzo Carter," by Ashbel W. Walworth. "Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," p. 339.
1
----- --
133
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
street. Many inquiries and answers passed, but the con- versation was marked by good feeling on both sides." Ben agreed to go back to Kentucky. " It would seem that the Major showed no dissatisfaction to Ben's going with his master; but two white men, one called John Thompson and the other Jas. Geer, hangers-on at the Major's tavern, preceded, or followed and passed the Kentuckians; for when they had got about three miles from Newburg Mills (then called Cleveland Mills), on the old ' Carter road,' they appeared, one on each side of the road, each with a rifle; and as the Kentuckians and Ben were passing, Ben still mounted, one of the men says, ' Ben, you d-d fool, jump off of that horse and take to the woods.' Ben obeyed, the hunters also ran, and it may be supposed, though not known, that the Kentuckians were somewhat astonished. However, they never returned to tell of their bad luck." The escaped slave camped out in the woods for awhile, and then disappeared, proba- bly across to Canada.
Another incident, which occurred near the same time, and caused widespread excitement during a portion of 1807, came near to causing a more serious collision be- tween the whites and the Indians than any yet occurring in that section. Daniel Diver, of Hudson, was killed in the early winter by an Indian, named John Mohawk. Two white men named Williams and Darrow set out upon a mission of revenge, and not finding Mohawk, killed an- other Indian named Nicksau or Nickshaw. When this wanton murder of an innocent man became known to the Senecas, to whose tribe he belonged, there was great ex- citement. The whites demanded Mohawk for punish- ment; the red men quite naturally asked that Darrow and Williams should also be punished. The great chief Seneca or Stigwanish (Standing Stone) very aptly stated the case when he declared " that the same measure of justice should be dealt out to Indians and white men." In this case both sides were treated alike. No one was arrested, and both crimes went unpunished.
134
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
The fifth and last division of the Reserve lands was made on January 5th, 1807, the drawing occurring at Hartford, Conn. The survey of Brooklyn, across the river from Cleveland, was also made, the lots being placed upon the market for sale.
A grand scheme of internal improvement came into being in the same year, and made some headway, although its object was in no sense accomplished. It was a season when improved methods of travel were being quite earnestly discussed in the east, and as rail- roads in their present methods of locomotion were un- dreamed of, the canal and the natural water course conse- quently received great attention. A proposition had been made in the New York Legislature for the survey of a canal route between Lake Erie and the Hudson River, and this was followed by a movement in Ohio for the im- provement of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, as natural channels of communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio. The plan proposed was the clearing of both streams of all obstructions, and the deepening of the channels where necessary. The portage path, connecting the two at their nearest points, was to be made passable for loaded wagons. Goods were to be carried up the Cuyahoga, sent across from Old Portage to New Portage on the Tuscarawas, and then on down to the Ohio, by way of the Muskingum.
It was thought that the whole plan could be carried out at an expense of twelve thousand dollars. The State Legislature was appealed to, and readily gave its sanction to the scheme; not by taking the money from the State Treasury or raising it by taxation, but by granting per- mission for a lottery, by which questionable method the needed funds were to be raised.
The plan, however, was a good one as viewed by the public opinion of the times. The best men of Cleveland were interested in its success, as shown by the board of commissioners having it in charge, who were: Samuel Huntington, Amos Spafford, John Walworth, Lorenzo
135
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Carter, James Kingsbury, Turhand Kirtland, Timothy Doan, Bezaleel Wells, Jonathan Cass, Seth Adams, Zac- cheus A. Beatty and John Shorb. It was known as the " Cuyahoga and Muskingum Navigation Lottery," for " improving the navigation between Lake Erie and the river Ohio through the Cuyahoga and Muskingum." The scheme was set forth by the commissioners as follows:
FIRST CLASS.
12,800 tickets at $5 each $64,000.
I Prize of
$5,000 is
$5,000
2
2,500 “
5,000
5
1,000
5,000
IO
500 ‘
5,000
50
100 “
5,000
100
50 "
5,000
3,400
34,000
3,568
$64,000
" Prizes subject to a deduction of twelve and a half per cent. The drawing of the First Class will commence at Cleveland on the first Monday of January, 1808, or as soon as three-fourths of the Tickets shall be sold; and the Prizes will be paid in sixty days after the drawing is completed."
This was to be no local affair. It was announced that payment of prizes would be made in Boston, Hartford, New York and Albany; and also in Zanesville and Steu- benville, Ohio. John Walworth was appointed agent for the signing of the tickets. "The subscribers," say the commissioners, " have taken the Oath and given the Bonds required by Law, for the faithful discharge of their trust, and they flatter themselves that an object of such extensive importance will not fail to attract the attention and patronage of many, who are not allured by the ad- vantageous prospects held out in the Scheme."
The waterway to the Ohio was compelled to remain in its unimproved condition, despite the pleasant expecta- tions of the worthy gentlemen having the lottery in charge. The public did not purchase tickets as readily as had been expected, and in all probability not more than one-fourth of those offered for sale were taken. The day
136
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
of drawing was postponed from time to time, and finally declared off altogether; the money returned to those who had paid it in, and the " scheme " abandoned.
Two personal views we have of Cleveland in this year 1807, one of them quite brief. The Rev. Dr. S. A. Bron- son, of Mansfield, told the early settlers on the Cuyahoga, some years ago, a little story9% of emigration to the west. "At length," said he, "we reached the Cuyahoga. This was then the western boundary of civilization. No team; no white woman but Canadian French, had as yet crossed this river. Our destination was Columbia. The township had been surveyed the previous summer, and some logs had been rolled up, but your speaker was the first baby, his mother the first American woman, and ours the first team, that crossed the Cuyahoga at Cleve- land." The other view is furnished by Thomas D. Webb, of Warren, who said: "I first saw Cleveland in October, 1807. I put up for a day or two with Major Amos Spafford, who kept a tavern. Governor Hunting- ton then lived in a log-house, standing a little south of Superior street, not far from the site of the American House. He had a frame barn, in size thirty feet by for- ty, near by. All the families on the city or ten-acre lots, or the lands adjoining, at that time, that I recollect, and I think that I recollect all, were, Amos Spafford,
Gilbert, Nathan Perry, Lorenzo Carter, Samuel Hunting- ton, John Walworth, and an Irish family I have forgot- ten. Samuel Dodge had lived on a ten-acre lot, but had at that time taken up his residence at Euclid; other fami- lies had resided there also, but at the time I arrived, had removed. There were the remains of some two or three buildings along the bank of the river, one of which I was told had been occupied as a store by a Scotchman, by the name of Alex. Campbell."
The little village had been without a blacksmith since Nathaniel Doan had moved out to the east, and the want was supplied in the person of Abram Hickox, whose
97 " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 10, P. 347.
137
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
arrival is set down as in 1808,98 and who soon became a local celebrity in his way. He located on the north side of Superior street, where the Johnson House was after- wards erected; is said to have had a shop at one time south of Superior, near Seneca street ; and afterwards built a small smithy at the corner of Euclid avenue and Hickox street, which was named in his honor. Over his door for years was the terse notification : " Uncle Abram
works here," and beneath it -for good luck, perhaps- the print of a horseshoe burned into the wood. " Uncle Abram," writes one 99 who knew him well, "was as honest as the day is long, and a patriot tried and true. He it was who on each Fourth of July, at early dawn, would arouse the sleeping inhabitants with the loud and booming report of "UNCLE " ABRAM HICKOX. his anvil, which was then the only battery of artillery of which Cleveland could boast. And all day long he would keep up the fire along the line. The old man on one oc- casion met with quite a mishap, caused by the blowing-up of his powder magazine, which burned him quite severe- ly; but, nothing daunted, he obtained a fresh supply, and continued his fusillade. Although it has been many long years since 'Uncle Abram' was laid to rest, me- thinks I see him still as he used to appear in his home-spun gray suit, wide-rimmed wool hat, steel-bowed specs, and stout hickory staff. He died in 1845, at a very advanced age, and his remains now repose in Erie Street Cemetery, by the side of his wife, who died several years previous." This well-remembered old man was not only the village blacksmith, but its sexton as well, and for years super-
98 Mrs. Long's statement .- " Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," P. 447.
99 " Old Time Characters," by O. P. C., in "Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 4, p. 46.
138
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
vised all arrangements for the burial of the dead.
A tragedy, that stirred the little community to unwont- ed sadness, occurred in April, 1808, when a boat-load of people was wrecked between Rocky River and Black River, and a number of lives lost. There have been sev- eral accounts thereof placed upon record, and probably the most correct, as it is certainly the most circum- stantial, was written by Q. F. Atkins, an eye-witness to much of that which he relates.1 Briefly stated, the story runs as follows: The people of Cleveland and Newburg had learned that there was an abundance of " yellow cat- fish " in the deep waters of Black River, and fitted out a Schenectady boat, or bateau, for a fishing expedition. Captain Joseph Plumb was placed in command, and in the party were Stephen Gilbert, Adolphus Spafford, a son of the Major, William Gilmore, a young man named White, two sons of Mr. Plumb, and a woman named Mary Billinger, who had been a domestic in the family of Nathan Perry, Sr., and was going to Black River, where the younger Nathan was then established.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.